A source close to President Trump told Newsmax that it is “the right bet” the 45th president will not attend the scheduled inauguration of Joe Biden on Jan. 20, assuming Biden is certified as the winner of his November contest with Trump.
The source spoke to Newsmax under condition of anonymity.
“All [Trump] is talking about these days is what he thinks is the fraud in the election,” said the source, who spoke to Newsmax shortly before Trump released his online blast at the Nov. 3 election count showing him losing to Biden.
“So it’s the right bet now to say he won’t attend the inauguration and won’t congratulate Biden,” the source said.
Should Trump go through with “non-attendance” at the events scheduled for Jan. 20, he will be the fourth president in U.S. history who did not attend his successor’s inauguration.
The others were John Adams in 1801, who did not attend successor and bitter enemy Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural; his son John Quincy Adams in 1829, who left Washington as arch-rival Andrew Jackson was sworn in; and Andrew Johnson in 1869, who remained in the Capitol signing last-minute bills because President-elect Ulysses S. Grant refused to share a carriage with him.
The same source cautioned that “with Donald Trump, things have a way of changing. He may become concerned that Biden will interfere with funding for his presidential library or something like that and decide to attend at the last minute.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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